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At least 55 records · Page 3

Northstar Mo100 Target Beam Spot Size Sensitivity Study

Northstar Mo100 target for production of the medical isotope Mo99 is particularly sensitive to beam over focusing because of the intended high power density. At 38 MeV and 6.32 mA (240 kW beam power, nominally 160 kW th in the target), small deviation from the nominal 12 mm FWHM beam can significantly increase the target disk temperatures and more importantly the load bearing target window temperature. A rhodotron will be the source of the electron beam to be used in the isotope production. This machine operates in a pulsed beam mode, currently expected to be at 50 Hz, which results in a 100 C temperature oscillation above and below the steady state temperature that is the focus of this study. This must be considered in the determination of minimum beam spot size that can be accepted by the target without risk of failure. In addition to the nominal beam spot size of 12 mm, the analysis of 10, 11 and 14.5 mm beam spot sizes are analyzed. The primary conclusion is that an over focused beam to just 11 mm FWHM is the minimum beam spot allowable, based on window temperature and the Ultimate Tensile Stress (UTS) of the window material Inconel 718 as a function of temperature. In contrast an under focused beam of 14.5 mm FWHM has much reduced target and window temperatures, but there is a resulting 6% drop in isotope production, all other factor staying the same. These results are presented herein.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Niowave Power Converter Modeling and Testing

Niowave has designed, built and is now using in-beam a low power (up to 10 kW) lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) converter. In this concept, an electron beam is passed through a falling layer of LBE, converting the electron to neutrons which then pass into a vessel which is functionally a subcritical reactor configuration. A detailed report has been written by Niowave, entitled “LBE Neutron Converter Manual.” The LANL contribution has been modeling, followed by a flow visualization model made in quartz. The LANL contribution is reported herein.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Design and Analysis of a Double Wall, Water Cooled Window for Accelerator Based Mo-99 Production

The electron accelerator based Mo-99 production technique requires the use of Rhodotrons to generate 38 MeV, 6.32 mA pulsed electron beams. The introduction of the pulsed beam structure has introduced fatigue concerns in the vacuum-helium windows that did not exist previously for electron beam production via linear accelerators. Previous analysis has shown that temperature fluctuations of approximately 100°C above and below the steady state operating temperature of ~500°C will occur within the windows. A water cooled window will eliminate this concern by reducing the primary mechanical stress due to the 300-psig helium pressure load as well as the secondary thermally induced stress. Although a water cooled window was considered years ago, the complexities of adding an additional water line was unattractive until now. A double wall, water cooled window has been designed and analyzed for this reason. The water cooled window design is shown to decrease the helium-side window temperature to as low as 125°C, while the vacuum-side window is maintained at 161°C at a water flow rate of 3.2 GPM. These low steady state temperatures reduce the thermal stress of the helium-side window significantly. Also, the primary mechanical stress has been reduced by roughly 50% due to the reduced pressure gradient across the helium-side window (150-psig water and 300-psig helium). Considering a Mo-99 production loss of roughly 1%, the water cooled window is a drastic improvement over the previous helium cooled designs and should be greatly considered for future upgrades and redesign.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

A beam profile and position measurement system for the IPF target

Currently one determines the size and position of the proton beam at the IPF target using plastic films. These films are installed in a target carrier, lowered into position, exposed to the beam, raised back up to the hot cell, removed from the target carrier, and assessed via a video feed. About an hour is required for each cycle of measurement. Because of this high cost in terms of time the users usually settle for a beam that is good enough to meet their needs, but not as good as they would like. I propose here a diagnostic device that would enable a measurement of under two seconds. This would enable delivery of a better-quality beam in less time.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Space charge fields in azimuthally symmetric beams: Integrated Green's function approach

Electromagnetic fields induced by the space charge in relativistic beams play an important role in Accelerator Physics. They lead to emittance growth, slice energy change, and the microbunching instability. Typically, these effects are modeled numerically since simple description exists only inthe limits of large- or small-scale current variations. In this paper we consider an axially symmetric charged beam inside a round pipe and find the solution of the space charge problem that is valid in the full range of current variations. We express the solution for the field components in terms of Green’s functions, which are fully determined by just a single function. We then find that this function is an on-axis potential from a charged disk in a round pipe, with transverse charge density ρ⊥(r), and it has a compact analythical expression. We finally provide an integrated Green’s function based approach for efficient numerical evaluation in the case when the transverse charge density stays the same along the beam

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Northstar Accelerator Based Mo99 Production Facility Design Support

Facility design support in FY20 centered on transfer of the target insertion and design details to MBraun and Springs, the companies under contract via Northstar to do the hot cell, target insertion and the local target shielding. A significant number of changes have been introduced by these vendors which have been reviewed and critiqued. In addition, the company contracted to produce the Mo100 disks announced that the tolerance on the thickness of 0.5 mm would be ±25%. An alternative design of the target holder was proposed. Bulk shielding and local target shielding design work has continued also and will be reported. Ongoing design and cooling issues continue to arise as the facility takes shape and moves toward completion. LANL is part of the team identifying, analyzing and designing solutions to these issues. Many of these are covered in this report.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Enhanced Beam Diagnostics with Existing BPPMs via GPU-powered Multi-Particle Simulation

This research aims to utilize the multi-particle code, High-Performance Simulator (HPSim), to realistically model the Side-Coupled-Cavity Linac (CCL) lattice of the LANSCE accelerator. This new model would allow us to predict the beam’s bunch length (the longitudinal spread), which is unavailable for individual accelerating modules or only accessible at the end of the linac. However, a correct bunch length is critical for the high-energy beam transport after the CCL. Its impact would be most significant in the Proton Storage Ring (PSR), where we should be able to reduce losses for the circulating beam. The PSR is scheduled to have a 25% current increase for the neutron spallation target upgrade at the Lujan Center. A highly bunched beam would be necessary to reduce the particle losses and lower the radiation levels produced from the ring. A realistic HPSim model with >1M macro-particles can help tackle the beam losses at the sub-percent level. This new work would also create a realistic surrogate model for future machine learning projects.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗